When I think of news, there is a very distinct picture that comes to mind. It will vary from person to person but the consensus has to be a stereotypical one. The idea is that of an anchor sitting at a desk, reading the day's events. This may appear as Edward R. Murrow, or Peter Mansbridge, or George Bryson, but usually the news anchor is how one pictures news.
Obviously a lot of people do not consume their news through news shows. Although, it's much harder to put a face on an internet site. As such our mind’s eye view of news is often the anchor. People also begin establish a rather willing trust with their news anchors. However, not all anchors are equally reliable, or equally entertaining.
It's in this last point that satirical news takes control in popularity. although the Daily show with John Stewart, and the Colbert Report aren't entirely satirical news, they aren't entirely entertainment based either.
You see, these shows often become the shows that today’s youth go to for the daily happenings. These humour slanted, near parody, news shows happen to output sufficiently relevant information. Additionally with the entertainment value, it allows young people the ability to learn something about the news. People are beginning to turn to a satirical news source for their news before going to an official source.
This however, is by no means a bad thing. People should be trying to learn something about the world around them, even at the risk of misinterpreting sarcasm. If a medium like Steven Colbert can lead people to question what is really going on, then it forces that person to begin to question the information they attain elsewhere.
Sometimes there is a lot of truth in an ironic comment, and sometimes there's a lot of news to be had from a satirical source.
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